The only way to get the hottest ticket in town is to be friends with Greg Williamson.
Williamson is a co-producer of the Soho Sessions, an invite-only charity concert series he founded with Nicole Rechter in late 2021.
He’s also a longtime Douglas Elliman agent, and his office doubles as the music venue.
Williamson’s series has hosted Paul Simon, Kelsea Ballerini, Kate Hudson, the Struts and, on the day I’m there, Grammy-winning soul singer Joss Stone. The concerts have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for St. Jude Children’s Hospital, Everytown for Gun Safety and other nonprofits. Today, on a gray early spring day, Joss Stone is performing, and St. Jude’s will benefit.
The headliners aren’t the only stars. The audience section seats both music insiders and real estate developers, hedge funders and other business world bigwigs. The audience is there for the singers and celebrities; the talent is there to fundraise for causes they care about. It’s a powerful community.
The sessions happen in an old office building on Centre Street, behind a red door marked only with a small plaque and up the elevator, in a black-walled loft decorated with green velvet couches and photos by famous music photographer Danny Clinch. It’s the old home of Chung King Studios, where artists from Notorious B.I.G. and Lauryn Hill to David Bowie and Lady Gaga once recorded.
Producing the Soho Sessions could be a career on its own; selling real estate is flexible, and lots of agents have passion projects, part-time jobs or hobbies. But Williamson is sticking with his day job. “I love doing deals,” he says. He’s a full-time agent with an eclectic mix of listings, and invests in multifamily projects in Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey with a few different developers.
This kind of work is different, he believes: “It pays you in ways that money never could.”
Business and pleasure
What pays in real estate is having a network. Williamson and Rechter have built theirs over more than 10 years of production. The pair have been putting on shows since 2017, when they launched Love Rocks, a concert that benefits God’s Love We Deliver, a charity that delivers meals to people with chronic illnesses.
Williamson was already a board member at God’s Love when he launched Love Rocks. Rechter, a top events producer, was the concert organizer. Williamson was the ideas guy. He pitched rockstar fashion designer John Varvatos, who was also a member of the God’s Love We Deliver board. “I’m fairly certain he never thought he would see me again,” Williamson says. Varvatos, Rechter and Williamson landed the funding, the stars and enough ticket sales to fill the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side. Joe Walsh from the Eagles and Cyndi Lauper were early sign-ons. Love Rocks has since raised $60 million for the charitable foundation.
During Covid, there was no appetite for a packed, 1,000-person benefit show. But Williamson and Rechter hosted jam sessions in the office space. “I would have just kept throwing parties,” Williamson said. Rechter convinced him to make it into something more, and the Soho Sessions were born.
Putting the concerts together, both the annual Love Rocks and the more frequent Soho Sessions, is work. But they love it.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with people doing things with just a work focus,” he says, “but if you’re dealing with people that are really methodical, really competent and purely working from a place of passion, it comes across.”
Singer Joss Stone seconds this. “It is a lovely thing,” she says. “The caliber of people is really good. Not just the people on stage, but everyone that’s working the events. They’re very professional.”
In contrast with Love Rocks, which is a nonprofit, the Soho Sessions are “a for-profit business with a charitable component,” Williamson explains. That’s opened the doors up to investors and business partnerships. Construction firm J.T. Magen and wealth manager East Rock Capital are the sponsors of the April concert.
It also puts Williamson and Rechter in the service business, not so far away from brokerage.
“We want [Stone] to walk away from this being like, ‘we had the best experience with Greg and Nicole at the Soho Session,’” Williamson says.
It’s the ultimate high-touch agent’s attitude. Though it all feels organic and the concerts are thoroughly organized and deeply planned, they’re also comfortable. There’s never a salesy moment, and Williamson’s introductions and conversational moments seem genuine. No need to trade business cards when you could be back here again in a month.
That has cycled back to his real estate business. “I’m connected to so many different people,” Williamson says.
Music and charity connections have helped with landing the sales assignment for a new development or bringing a client to a partner. One frequent broker partner is Ann Cutbill Lenane, one of Elliman’s very top producers and a longtime friend of Williamson’s.
“He’s a force of nature,” Lenane says. She’s known him since his early days at Elliman’s Upper West Side office. It’s been a natural process for her to work with the contacts who flow in from Williamson’s wide network. “It’s a win-win for everybody,” she says.
It wasn’t always. “For the first seven or eight years I kept it very church and state,” Williamson says. He figured people would “get a guard up” if he introduced himself as a broker. It had to happen organically, no business cards exchanged.
Now, with relationships in place and the history of Love Rocks and three years of Soho Sessions behind him, “nobody cares.”
Run of show
Joss Stone’s vocal run echoes up the stairs to a space two floors above the venue, where Williamson has been debriefing me. When artists do sound checks, other office tenants leave their doors open to listen. Stone’s voice carries through the floor until she comes floating up the stairs a few minutes later. She is pregnant and shoeless and has come to take a short rest before the performance.
Williamson has already done his own prep. For concerts, he tucks his Elliman poster away in the back of the office. He, Rechter and Dawn Kamerling, who does PR for Soho Sessions, have reviewed the seating: tennis legend John McEnroe here, billionaire investor Mike Novogratz there. Whoopi Goldberg in that corner, broadcaster Don Lemon just in front of her, Varvatos there. The Real Deal’s Amir Korangy and Elliman’s head of communications Stephen Larkin are there too.
At 7 p.m., guests arrive. Williamson greets everyone, from the bouncers to the billionaires, with equal enthusiasm. They hobnob in the loft’s low lighting.
From my seat at stage left, I watch Williamson take the stage to introduce the charity partner, a young woman from St. Jude’s who was once a patient and is now a part of the fundraising team. The guests clap politely. As Williamson introduces Stone, the energy ramps up. She waltzes to the mic, as Williamson slips back into the crowd.
Stone is hypnotic on stage, especially from this close. And Williamson, bobbing through the audience, bringing water bottles and whispered jokes to guests, is loving it. Whether crouched next to the guests in the front row or leaning against the back wall, he’s grooving along to the music.
Williamson sees room for growth both on the real estate side and within the music-charity circuit.
“This could be a thing that gets done all over the world,” Williamson says, “London, Los Angeles, maybe Nashville.”
It’d be hard to replicate these New York connections, though.
Back before the show, as Williamson was explaining his vision, house band leader Larry Campbell had climbed the stairs to the space where we were talking and Stone was resting. He had the old rockstar look, with long hair and a gapped smile, and he carried his guitar. “He’s worked with Bob Dylan, Paul Simon,” Williamson said. “And I sold his mother’s apartment.”
“He got a great deal,” Campbell said.